Dark Hollow eBook

The little woman towards whom this appeal—­or
shall I say command--was directed, flushed a fine
colour under so many eyes, but immediately began her
ingenuous tale. She had already related it a
half dozen times into as many sympathising ears, but
she was not one to shirk publicity, for all her retiring
manners and meekness of disposition.

It was to this effect:

She was sitting in her front window sewing. (Everybody
knew that this window faced the end of the lane in
which they were then standing.) The blinds were drawn
but not quite, being held in just the desired position
by a string. Naturally, she could see out without
being very plainly seen herself; and quite naturally,
too, since she had watched the same proceeding for
years, she had her eyes on this gate when Bela, prompt
to the minute as he always was, issued forth on his
morning walk to town for the day’s supplies.

Always exact, always in a hurry—­knowing
as he did that the judge would not leave for court
till his return—­he had never, in all the
eight years she had been sitting in that window making
button-holes, shown any hesitation in his methodical
relocking of the gate and subsequent quick departure.

But this morning he had neither borne himself with
his usual spirit nor moved with his usual promptitude.
Instead of stepping at once into the lane, he had
lingered in the gate-way peering to right and left
and pushing the gravel aside with his foot in a way
so unlike himself that the moment he was out of sight,
she could not help running down the lane to see if
her suspicions were correct.

And they were. Not only had he left the gate
unlocked, but he had done so purposely. The movement
he had made with his foot had been done for the purpose
of pushing into place a small pebble, which, as all
could see, lay where it would best prevent the gate
from closing.

What could such treachery mean, and what was her neighbourly
duty under circumstances so unparalleled? Should
she go away, or stop and take one peep just to see
that there really was another and similar fence inside
of this one? She had about decided that it was
only proper for her to enter and make sure that all
was right with the judge, when she experienced that
peculiar sense of being watched with which all of
us are familiar, and turning quickly round, saw a
woman looking at her from the road,—­a woman
all in purple even to the veil which hid her features.
A little child was with her, and the two must have
stepped into the road from behind some of the bushes,
as neither of them were anywhere in sight when she
herself came running down from the corner.

It was enough to startle any one, especially as the
woman did not speak but just stood silent and watchful
till Miss Weeks in her embarrassment began to edge
away towards home in the hope that the other would
follow her example and so leave the place free for
her to return and take the little peep she had promised
herself.